Application of the Bammann inelasticity internal state variable constitutive model to geological materials

Abstract

SUMMARY We describe how the Bammann internal state variable (ISV) constitutive approach, which has proven highly successful in modelling deformation processes in metals, can be applied with great benefit to silicate rocks and other geological materials in modelling their deformation dynamics. In its essence, ISV theory provides a constitutive framework to account for changing history states that arise from inelastic dissipative microstructural evolution of a polycrystalline solid. In this paper, we restrict our attention to a Bammann ISV elastic-viscoplastic model with temperature and strain rate dependence and use isotropic hardening and anisotropic hardening as our two ISVs. We show the Bammann model captures the inelastic behaviour of olivine aggregates (with and without water), lherzolite (with and without water), Carrara marble and rock salt using some experimental data found in the literature. These examples illustrate that when more experimental stress–strain data are gathered on other rock materials, much more realistic numerical simulation of rock behaviour becomes feasible. Though not available in the literature, we outline a set of experiments to obtain unique Bammann ISV model constants.